About

Hello !

Welcome to Pediatricfeedingnews.com! This blog is dedicated to providing the most up to date and current information related to pediatric feeding and swallowing problems. My name is Krisi Brackett and I am a speech pathologist who has specialized in pediatric feeding for over 20 years. I published The Pediatric Feeding & Dysphagia Newsletter for 10 years which was an e-newsletter dedicated to providing up to date information to professionals around the world and I am now turning that into a blog. I am a working clinician treating children with feeding problems every day.

We know that pediatric feeding problems are common – research says about 80% of kids with developmental disabilities and about 20% of typically developing kids will be identified with a feeding/swallowing problem. These problems are complicated, often multifactorial, and can be difficult to treat involving many different professionals. All of this adds up to high stress for the caregivers and families of these children. For professionals to stay current in this field, you must pull information from many sources including the fields of medicine, nutrition, oral motor and swallowing intervention, behavioral reinforcement, sensory processing, motor development and positioning.

About Me

I did my original training with an intensive feeding program where I first learned to use a medical/motor/behavior approach to help improve feeding problems. I have been involved in feeding on many levels including:

providing evaluation, treatment, and objective swallowing studies for over 20 years. I have worked in hospitals, early intervention, and private practice.

Currently, I work at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC where I am co-director of our pediatric feeding team providing pediatric out-patient feeding evaluation and treatment as well as performing objective swallowing studies. Our philosophy is based on a medical, motor and behavioral approach and I will post about our experiences in using this type of treatment with this challenging population. I feel so lucky to work on a feeding team with physicians, nurse practitioners, and dieticians. However, I have also treated children through early intervention and privately in their homes so I know how challenging this can be.

We know there isn’t just one way to treat a child with a feeding problem. I hope with this blog to provide a hub of information from a variety of disciplines and to continue learning about this fascinating specialty area. Fashioned after my newsletter, we will feature general information, interviews, guest posts, research reviews, treatment ideas, case studies, product recommendations, book reviews, and workshop/training information.